This story begins with the wooden puzzle above that arrived at our house from Liberty Puzzles a few weeks back. I discovered Liberty Puzzles during COVID and over the past two years have amassed a broad collection of these intricate, wildly creative wooden puzzles. When I spotted Castle Neuschwanstein on the website recently I just had to have it. We have visited Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s fantasy castle.
Granted, we visited Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany during the spring of 1987, more than half my lifetime ago. I was 33. Dang, that was a long time ago. David and I and our two young sons, Aaron and Ben, traveled to Bavaria in Germany. I captured a few photos of the trip with my trusty point-and-shoot camera. You know, you buy the 110 film with 24 exposures, load it in the camera, shoot, wind, repeat to the end of the roll, with no clue as to what you have until you get the film developed. (If you understand this or have ever even seen a roll of film, it belies your age.)
I put the photos in an album that has been sitting on a shelf for 36 years. And we know where they’ll likely end up (dumpster). In the meantime, they just seemed destined for my blog. So I pulled them out and took photos of them with my i-Phone. Are you ready for the trip to Bavaria, Germany to visit two of the Fairy Tale King Ludwig II Castles? Here we go. (How could you be so lucky?)
We’re at the train station now. The Hauptbahnhof. (I promise this is the worst photo – I just wanted to make sure I knew how to spell Hauptbahnhof).
Hauptbahnhof means “Central Station.” Like in Berlin, or Hamburg, or in this case, maybe Munich? Not sure which central station it is. Or why we were even at the train station. We were living in Sweden at the time of this trip and I assume we drove to Germany. Those blurry figures on the left are David with Ben (almost 3) and Aaron (almost 5). Are we having fun yet?
Descending the escalator! (??)
If we were taking photos with a smart phone it would tell us exactly where we are. But with these photos I have to guess the exact locations. We are definitely in Bavaria in the south of Germany, just one or two kilometers from Austria. The foothills of the Alps!
Our destination today is to visit Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s 19th Century fantasy castle, which sits in the hills above the incorporated village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen. Check out this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle King Ludwig II commissioned Neuschwanstein Castle as his own personal retreat but also in honor of composer Richard Wagner whom he greatly admired.
There it is! (With Aaron and Ben in the foreground)
How do we get to it? From the small village of Hohenschwangau just below the castle? Here we are, I believe, in the nearby town of Füssen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Füssen David, take a picture of us with that castle in the background! (Okay not too thrilled with my hair, which I had to cut off due to it being completely fried by a recent perm. Remember those 80’s perms? Disco on, baby!) Anyway,
That castle behind us must be the Hohenschwangau Castle, the childhood residence of King Ludvig II? Maybe, or it could just be one of Germany’s 20,000-plus castles https://germanyinusa.com/2019/05/02/germany-home-to-more-than-20000-castles/
Here is a screenshot of the Hohenschwangau castle from this Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenschwangau_Castle
Which does look remarkably similar to the castle behind us in the photo. So, maybe?
In any case, King Ludwig II, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria was born in 1845 and spent much of his childhood in the Hohenschwangau fantasy castle (above) built by his father Maximilian II near Füssen in Bavaria (where we are now). Ludwig was continually reminded as a child that he would ascend to the throne one day. From an early age he was both extremely indulged and severely controlled by his tutors and subjected to a strict regimen of study and exercise. According to his mother, he was an extremely introverted and creative child who spent much time day-dreaming. You can imagine him as a child peering out the windows of the Hohenschwangau Castle to the foothills of the Alps, imagining the huge fairy tale castle he would build for himself one day. Which is exactly what he did.
Crown Prince Ludwig was 18 years old in 1863 when his father died after a 3-day illness, and he ascended to the throne. Although ill-prepared for office, his youth and good looks made him popular in Bavaria and elsewhere. Except his real interests lay in art, music and architecture. His extreme shyness caused him to avoid large public functions and social events whenever possible. He increasingly withdrew from day-to-day affairs of state and spent much of his time absorbed in his own fantasy world. He commissioned the construction of three fantasy palaces/castles: Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, and Herrenchiemsee. The construction of Neuschwanstein began in 1869. https://www.neuschwansteincastle-tours.com/neuschwanstein-castle-history/ The castle’s construction was King Ludwig’s passion project, and he was involved in every aspect of the planning and design. Christian Jank made the castle’s overall design, and King Ludwig hired theater artists to design the castle’s interiors. Intricate murals and decorations cover almost every surface of the palace. King Ludwig spent his own private money from the royal family and borrowed extensively to build his castles, defying all attempts by his ministers to reign in his spending. When his castle building threatened to bankrupt the Bavarian state, his ministers accused him of insanity. In 1886, they deposed him on the grounds of mental illness and had him committed to the custody of Lake Starnberg castle. This accusation has since come under scrutiny.
The day after his imprisonment, Ludwig II was found dead in Lake Starnberg. He had gone out for a walk after dinner with his physician Dr. Gudden and they were both found dead, head and shoulders above the shallow water near the shore. Gudden’s body showed signs of strangulation and blows to the head and neck. Ludwig’s death was ruled a drowning but the official autopsy report indicated that no water was found in his lungs. Ludwig was a very strong swimmer in his youth and the water was about waist deep where he was found. Speculation exists that Ludwig was murdered by his enemies while attempting to escape from his imprisonment. A Memorial Cross has been placed at the site where the body of Ludwig II was found in Lake Starnberg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ludwig_II_Memorial_Cross_Lake_Starnberg.jpg He was forty years old at the time of his death.
Neuschwanstein Castle was intended to serve as King Ludwig II’s private residence but it was never completed before his death. It had been under construction for 17 years. Seven weeks after his death, in 1886, Neuschwanstein was opened to the public and since then, more than 61 million people have visited the castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer.
Back to our visit to Neuschwanstein in the spring of 1987, 36 years ago, 101 years after it opened.
This might be a view of Neuschwanstein from Füssen?
We have made it up to the castle!
There I am holding Ben. Aaron might be totally out of sorts, being too small to see over the stair rail.
This link on Neuschwanstein is fabulous – all you need to know of the history and King Ludwig II, plus a complete tour of every room of the interior: https://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/ludwig/biography.htm
Great views of Füssen from the Castle
This experience might have been a bit lost on the kids.
Oh, but wait, there’s more. Next we will visit Linderhof Palace, the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II and the only large palace he lived to see completed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linderhof_Palace
King Ludwig actually lived here. Linderhof, in comparison to other palaces, has a rather private atmosphere with only four rooms that have a real function. The Hall of Mirrors was used by the king as a drawing room. Because Ludwig II used to sleep in the daytime and stay awake through the night, “the mirrors created an unimaginable effect for him when they reflected the light of the candles a thousand times. The parallel placement of some mirrors evoke the illusion of a never ending avenue.” Huh. Somehow that all-night activity doesn’t sound like it would mesh well with his assigned administrative duties.
What I remember most from Linderhof is the magnificent terraced gardens surrounding the Palace. Apparently among them was a 300-yr-old Linden tree with a seat in it where Ludwig would take his ‘breakfast’ at sunset hidden from view (of his adult supervision?) amongst the branches. Here are the photos we took of our visit 36 years ago:
A few more photos from our trip to Bavaria…
Here I am with Aaron and Ben – love the murals on the buildings!
And the gardens. I can’t believe we did all that walking with two small children and one little ‘ol banana stroller. You see here that Ben has relenquished the stroller to Aaron. I wonder if they’ve been keeping score this whole trip on who’s turn it is to ride.
David with the kiddos:
Take a play break at the fountain!
It was great to sit outside by a Jagerhaus (hunting lodge?) and enjoy the Bavarian spring weather.
Oh no! Who could have predicted that a bee would land on the rim of Aaron’s coke and sting him right on the lip as he lifted his can to take that oh-so-innocent sip? When you ask Aaron about this trip he will say that he does remember that cruel bee sting to his lip! We all do.
Yeah, well, the kiddos are 40 now. Dang. What does that make us? David and I. How did we find ourselves at this (ahem) stage of our lives so quickly?
That about wraps up our trip to Bavaria, Germany, 36 years ago where we visited two of King Ludwig’s fantasy castles. I dunno, I may have to lock myself overnight in a hall of mirrors reflecting the light of the candles a thousand times, creating an unimaginable effect on my brain to tackle that intricate wooden 641-piece Liberty puzzle of Castle Neuschwanstein.
Tags: Bavaria, Bavaria Neuschwanstein Castle, Füssen, Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig II, Liberty Puzzles, Linderhof Palace
The Decompression of a Boomer 
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